My letter
Dear Sirs,
This morning my husband and I took our 6 month old daughter swimming at Northcroft Leisure Centre, and without a shadow of a doubt this is the worst swimming pool I have ever been to. I am not normally a person who feels moved to write letters of complaint, but my disgust at the abysmal levels of hygiene and repair of the facilities at Northcroft was overwhelming.
We arrived and went into a family changing room. It was poorly lit and smelt of faeces. We put our bag in one of the dirty and undersized lockers, paid our 20p, and remembered we had forgotten something from our bag. Using the key which had no strap to fasten it to me to stop me from losing it I opened the locker again, only to realise this had cost me my 20p. Nowhere did it say that the coins were not returnable. All of the other swimming pools I have used recently return the coin so you do not have to pay each time you wish to access your belongings. When you take a baby swimming it is often necessary to get various things from your locker and be able to lock it again.
We proceeded to the pool where I was flabbergasted to discover there not only was no footwash, but people with outside shoes were allowed onto the poolside area. Even worse - prams were parked actually on the poolside too. The whole area was slightly muddy. I could not get the thought out of my head that pramwheels can often be covered in all matter of undesirable things, especially since so many people walk their dogs in the areas surrounding the leisure centre, and whatever was on people's shoes and pram wheels was going straight into the pool water. Of course it would be possible to combat this using chemicals in the water, which made me shudder to think about the amount of chemicals you would have to put in to kill off all the bacteria that could so easily have been minimised using a footwash and the use of indoor shoes only where people have to wear shoes on the poolside.
Our swim was shorter than usual as we did not feel comfortable allowing our baby to splash and play as she normally would for fear of getting either dirty water in her mouth and nose, or overtreated water in her eyes. On getting out of the pool we were suddenly struck by how cold it was in the changing rooms. We used a cublicle, as further inspection of the other family changing rooms lead to the discovery that one smelt overwhelmingly of urine and the other had nearly no lighting at all. The cubicle we chose had peeling paint, one broken and sharp metal clothes hook, and food and dirt on the floor. On removing my baby's nappy we discovered there was no hygienic bin to dispose of it in anywhere in the changing rooms. We would like to have washed the water from the pool off our baby, but the showers were too hot and powerful to do this. I used the showers to wash myself off and noticed that the grout between the tiles was covered in black mould. The floor was dirty throughout. The painted parts of the ladies' shower area were also peeling. I had a further wash at home as I actually felt dirty on leaving the pool.
I was given a customer comments form on leaving the leisure centre, but the 4 lines available for comments did not seem enough to write down everything I have to say. I will not be taking my baby to Northcroft again, in the area Tadley pool is much cleaner and brighter, making for an altogether more pleasant experience. I often sing the praises of taking a small baby swimming - mine has grown greatly in confidence and ability since I first took her swimming as a 10 week old, but I will be making the recommendation to my friends that Northcroft is not a pleasant or hygienic place to take their baby. It will take an enormous makeover to bring your facitlies up to scratch.
Their reply
Thank you for your feedback relating to your disappointing visit to Northcroft last Saturday morning, and I apologise for all the matters highlighted in your email. I am responsible for the cleanliness, maintenance and customer satisfaction levels of the centre, and have taken the following measures to improve our facilities following your comments:
The poolside cleaning programme has been reviewed and the specific areas mentioned have been revisited. Both group changing areas have been 'deep cleaned' and the drains treated for foul odours. Unfortunately, as Andy referred to in his reply, the lighting in the group changing rooms is poor and due to be refurbished.
We will be ordering replacement keys/keypins for the poolside lockers. I agree that that there are too many keys without the securing pins. I will also be posting signs on the lockers regarding the non-returnable aspect of 20p's.
It is not our policy to allow Prams or people with outdoor footwear to walk around the poolside. I will reiterate this with our lifeguard and Duty Management teams to enforce this.
The chemical levels in the pool are automatically dosed, and manually checked every two hours. The level of chemical in the pool is always within guideline limits.
We will investigate the levels of heating in the poolside changing rooms to ensure that the correct ambiant temperatures are maintained.
There are three hygiene bins situated within the poolside changing rooms, however, none within the group changing rooms.
We have checked the shower temperatures and the flow rates and adjusted accordingly.
The grout in the poolside shower area has been stripped and redone.
I hope that this in some way gives confidence that we are trying to maintain high levels of cleanliness, maintenance and satisfaction for all our customers, and importantly listening to their feedback and responding accordingly. Once again, please accept my sincere apologies for the regrettable nature of our communication.
